Showing posts with label Stage Magic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Stage Magic. Show all posts

Monday, 25 October 2021

ALL Comedy is Rooted in FEAR --

It has often been said that 
ALL Comedy is rooted in FEAR -- 
The Things That Make Us Laugh 
are VERY Closely Related to 
The Things That FRIGHTEN Us.


The Physical Comedian ["Clown"] 
seems fated to be 
The Victim of His Own Comedy - 
and not only does he suffer from Violence.... 
He is also constantly at the mercy --
of MAGIC.

Many of The Tricks that 
The Comedian uses to AMUSE us 
are similar to those 
The Magician uses to ASTONISH us.

For instance, a lot of visual jokes are based on 
people suddenly appearing or disappearing.

The Sudden Appearance or Sudden Disappearance 
are important elements in Slapstick
if someone falls over, it is funnier 
if they DISAPPEAR at the same time.

And The Farce of People 
Running In and Out of Doors is comic, 
because it provides a RAPID SEQUENCE of Appearances and Disappearances - 
The faster a character shoots in and out of vision, the more effective it is likely to be.

Apart from Appearances or Disappearances, the main business of The Magician 
is to achieve TRANSFORMATIONS, turning ONE thing into Something Else - 
A Magical Transformation becomes comic when it is ABSURD, as well as astonishing.

The first person to make 
surreal jokes using FILM Magic 
was Georges Melies
working at the turn of the century. 

His films are full of Sudden Appearances, Disappearances and Transformations
achieved through simple camera tricks - of course, when The Comedy depends on tricks like these, 
it has more to do with The Mind BEHIND The Camera than The Performer in FRONT of it.

He has to resign himself to becoming 
A Victim of The EFFECTS. 
The most commonly-used effect 
is to speed up The Action - 
This makes any movement 
look mechanical, and therefore comic. 
It was a device much used by Melies, and it has NEVER gone out of fashion.

It has often been said that 
ALL Comedy is rooted in FEAR -- 
The Things That Make Us Laugh 
are VERY Closely Related to 
The Things That FRIGHTEN Us."